It appears that taking major UK 'charities' as a whole, 'about half' is the correct answer, some do worse, some do better.

I think there are two separate issues here. The people at the top - an army of trustees, directors, advisors, auditors and lawyers - just help themselves.

And then there is the issue of fund raising. See my earlier post. A charity ends up as a profit maximising organisation, so if they can spend £9 on fund raising to generate £10 in donations, they will do so. Little wonder that some charities spend most of their 'income' on fund raising.
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This week's Fun Online Poll...

It appears to me that most of the candidates in the BBC's list of finalists have not done anything remarkable this year and/or have a distinct lack of personality i.e. they will do or say nothing to upset their sponsors or The Establishment i.e. the BBC.

So let's do the decent thing and have a Sports Lack Of Personality Of The Year Award. Please vote for the candidate who has achieved least in the last twelve months; does not appear to utter anything apart from platitudes; and/or who appears most often in advertisements. Failing that, just vote for somebody you've never heard of (half of them, in my case).

Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar. Just to lighten things up, you are allowed one vote per day if you feel that more than one person meets all those criteria.

"Frank Field, the Labour chair of the Commons Work and Pensions committee, said the scheme would curb immigration, slash welfare costs and end the housing crisis"

"Frank Field, the Labour chair of the Commons Work and Pensions committee, said student-style loans would be provided to put people through a 10-week apprenticeship with private-sector training providers.

They could then expect to earn at least £80 a day during a further year of on-the-job learning and up to twice that by the end of the second year if their skills were certified by a government inspector."

"Now, as well as at a future date, the obvious answer is relevant, that the only sustainable way to reduce the size of the housing benefit budget is to increase the supply of housing by initiating a national housebuilding programme.

Given the potential for a rapid wage increase, the paper suggested, the loans could be repaid over two years."

“Repayment would open the possibility of acquiring other apprenticeship skills at a later date."

The earliest example of the phenomenon that your sister speaks of is charity Christmas cards. Something like 5p of the box goes to charity, for an extra quid on the price.

In many ways, it just ends up becoming an arms race with different rent collectors (until you realise to avoid the big charities). If a charity can get their message in front of someone else's they get the money. And they rely hugely on professionals now. I know people running web design companies updating websites where that sort of thing used to be done by volunteers.

Volunteer collecting works pretty well, because they target where they can raise the most. People won't spend a day collecting of their time to make £50. They'll find another way.